Richmond Heights law director terminated -- UPDATE

Richmond Heights Law Director R. Todd Hunt has been fired by Mayor Miesha Wilson Headen.
“This letter is to advise you that I am terminating your employment with the City of Richmond Heights, effective this date today May 14, 2014 at 4:15 p.m.,” Headen said in a letter to Hunt. Hunt’s termination comes less than two weeks after the termination of acting Finance Director Jeff Smock, who took over the position in December after the resignation of Paul Ellis, and another employee in the finance department.
At the May 13 City Council meeting, Headen said the city had $500,000 in illegal transfers in 2011, according to the Ohio Auditor of State’s report.
“Well, we can point to the finance director and say, ‘How can you make a mistake like that?’ ” Headen said. “But then you also have to turn and say, ‘Well who wrote the document?’ In the effort of reform, what I desire to do is bring together, simultaneously, the team of finance and law who understand their singular mission is to remedy the financial reporting of the city of Richmond Heights and bring us into compliance.”
Headen added that the city’s bond rating is “one step above junk.”
“Until we improve our credit rating, we cannot rebuild,” she said. “We can’t get the roads paved, we cannot improve the parks system, we cannot mend these waters and sewers that break, I feel, every other week.”
At the May 13 meeting, Headen also said the listing for finance director had not been posted yet because the job description was still being worked on.
At-Large Councilman Donald O’Toole said he thought the hair on the back of his neck went up after Headen’s comments at the meeting.
“The point is, she’s using the audit as a crutch to remove people,” O’Toole said.
He added that the audits for 2011 and 2012 were better than they were for 2009 and 2010, which shows they’re making progress. He called the mayor’s comments a “cheap shot” at Hunt and added that Smock was not the finance director during either year of the audit.
“I think it’s very bad,” Ward 3 Councilwoman Eloise Henry of Hunt’s termination. “He did a great job representing the city.”
Both Henry and O’Toole said there is a lack of communication between the mayor and members of council.
Henry said she found out about Hunt’s termination when he emailed the council members a copy of his termination letter.
O’Toole said the previous mayor, Dan Ursu, always informed council of whom he was considering to hire for department head positions because he knew council also needs to approve those appointments. Under Headen, O’Toole said, the appointments have been “jammed down” their throats.
The city will be down another department head when Donald Lazar, the city’s service director, retires at the end of the month, but so far O’Toole said he has heard nothing about who is in consideration to replace him.
He said communication is the beginning of building a relationship, but they are currently not working together.
“I want this thing to work out,” O’Toole said of council’s relationship with the mayor.
He said he expects the “wheels of government to grind to a halt to a degree,” and he probably won’t vote on any ordinances or resolutions until a new law director is hired. He added that it’s generally the law director who puts those pieces of legislation together with the direction of council or the mayor.
Council does not have the ability to override Hunt’s termination.
“When she fires people, they’re fired,” Henry said.
O’Toole added that some department heads, such as the service director, have a clause in their contract that does not allow them to be terminated without council’s approval, but the law director does not have such a clause.
In Richmond Heights, the law director is appointed by the mayor and then must be approved by a majority of council.
Headen said she has received responses from 10 highly qualified candidates for the law director position. She said she is looking to hire someone who can spend two or three days a week in the city and can work with the next finance director toward financial reform.
She added that ideally she would like to make an appointment within the next two weeks, but said she is most concerned about putting together the right team.
Hunt did not return a call for comment.